Christmas

I love the Christmas season. I'm always a little sad when Christmas day arrives because it means it is almost over. We have loved all the time this month that we have shared with so many wonderful friends and family members. As my kids were going to bed on Christmas Eve we were talking about how hard it is for kids to fall asleep on Christmas Eve. What my kids don't realize is that I am just as excited as they are for Christmas morning - not because of what I'm going to receive but because I love to see my kids so happy! We had a quiet day at home and I loved every minute of it. Mostly, I rejoice in the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love the time to reflect on his birth, life and sacrifice for all of us. Merry Christmas!

Can't wait to see what Santa brought!

We'll soon be getting a pet! Andrew got a parakeet cage and gift card to the pet store.

This is the view we saw of Jared most of the day as he was taking pictures with his new camera. Notice the jersey of his favorite Jazz player.

I think 4 might be the perfect age for Christmas! Kaitlyn loved all her new Barbies and dress up clothes!

Rumor has it that it took Santa hours to assemble this!

Andrew spent all afternoon putting together his Harry Potter castle. We thought a Lego set with 1290 pieces would last for at least a week but we were wrong!

Busy Time of Year

It's that busy time of year when it seems like almost every day there is a fun party or activity to go to. We've enjoyed spending lots of time with friends and family the last couple weeks. Here are some random pictures to catch up on what's been going on.

Kaitlyn's Christmas dress. She wasn't very cooperative about posing but she really did look adorable! I love shopping for a little girl!

Jared just finished his Jr. Jazz season. His team came so close to being undefeated! They lost their last game by just a couple points! He loves playing basketball and still spends a lot of time outside in the cold shooting hoops in our little basketball stand in the driveway. He can't wait until his dad gets around to putting a real one in the backyard.

Kaitlyn's preschool field trip to the Christmas Village. She kept getting behind the group because she could have spent hours looking in the windows!

Kaitlyn's first dance recital! She was so cute and she wasn't nervous at all to be up on stage in front of everyone. Here she is with her dance teacher, Brynn.

Breakfast with Santa at Grandma's house Saturday. It's nice that all my kids are old enough that no one is scared of Santa. Several of their younger cousins were crying!

Last week I was grocery shopping and Kaitlyn was begging me to buy pistachios! I didn't get any because last year Jason was given a huge bag from the hospital. Jason came home for lunch that day and guess what he had! Kaitlyn couldn't wait and found some scissors to open the bag while Jason and I were unloading the groceries from the car!

Late Birthday, Early Christmas

My late birthday and early Christmas present was delivered today! I love it. I'm so excited to have somewhere fun to display all the china I got for my wedding 13 years ago instead of in a closet where no one sees it! It took two years but now every room in our house has at least one piece of furniture!

Here's a more detailed view of the hutch and table top.

Surprise Phone Call

Yesterday the phone rang and when I picked it up someone was speaking in broken English. I assumed it was a wrong number until he asked if Jason was home. I was a little confused until he identified himself as Moises from Brazil! Moises is someone Jason baptized on him mission in Brazil. I have a terrible record with answering the phone when Brazilians call. Several years ago I was woken up in the middle of the night by the phone ringing and when I answered it all I heard was what I thought was Spanish. I yelled at them that they had a wrong number and they had woken me up and hung up on them. It wasn't until I got in bed that I realized that in the middle of the "Spanish" I think I recognized Jason's name. Luckily the caller was brave enough to call back and that time Jason answered the phone.

Anyway, yesterday I managed to get the message across that Jason wasn't home and give Moises his cell phone. Jason came home ecstatic after talking with him! It made me realize how much Jason loved the people he taught on his mission. Jason was able to go to the temple with Moises while he was still in Brazil and in the 15 years since Jason has been home Moises has gone on a mission, served as a branch president once and a bishop twice! I think it really makes the two years Jason gave up to go on a mission worth it to see someone he was able to teach become such a faithful member of the church!

Deck the Halls

I first saw our house 2 1/2 years ago when Jason was interviewing here with IHC and the realtor giving us a tour drove us past the house. I thought it had a lot of charm and loved how unique it was. When we decided to take the job one of the first things I asked is if this house was still available. We looked at dozens of houses but this one just felt the most like home. The first time we went through the house Jason and I both said "This house would be so fun to decorate for Christmas!" Since we moved in January I had to wait almost a whole year but I love it!

Last year when it was time to put up the Christmas lights Jason wasn't too excited about it. (Notice that one of those corners is almost three stories up!) He thought it would be fine to just hang them above the porch but I insisted we get them on the top level as well as hanging wreaths on the windows. Luckily we had a fearless teenage neighbor who wasn't afraid of heights! This year we found a cherry picker type contraption so that no one had to climb to the top. Here it is all lit up at night. I think it was worth it!

When I started shopping I quickly found out how expensive my ideas were so this is a work in progress that I'm adding to every year. Last year I bought the garlands.

This year I bought my own tree so the kids could decorate the real tree how they want and I can have a pretty tree with white lights. (Jason hates white lights.)

I'll probably still add to the tree but I think I'm over budget for this year. Jason thinks I'm going a little overboard. He said it's going to take me a month to get it up and a month to take it down. It only took a week and next year if we stay in town for Thanksgiving I'm pretty confident I can get it up in a weekend!

Thanksgiving in California

My brother, Ethan, and his wife, Cecilia, were visiting LA from Europe in November so we made a quick trip to see my family for Thanksgiving. Ethan was in LA to defend his physics PhD thesis at UCLA. We arrived on Tuesday evening and he defended his thesis Wednesday afternoon. My poor brother! I don't think I've ever seen him under so much stress before! He really looked like he was in bad shape when we got there (and I think he would agree with this statement!) The kids were dying to play with him but we tried to keep them calm and out of the way until he had left for his defense. While he was gone we threw together a party for him. Here are the kids making a sign saying "Congrats Dr. Brown!"

We were all relieved to see Ethan and Cecilia walk in the door with big smiles on their faces. Ethan did a fantastic job and received nothing but praise from his review committee! Congratulations, Ethan! What a great accomplishment! He's moving to Germany now to work in a post doc position while Cecilia works on her PhD (also in physics). Here are the kids with a much happier uncle!

Thanksgiving Day we went to Long Beach to run the Turkey Trot. We were hearing from our family in Utah about the extremely cold weather that had arrived for the weekend and really enjoyed a run on the beach with temperatures in the mid 50s. Jason ran the 10K in 36:52 and placed 4th in the men. This was the fastest he has run the 10K in years! Andrew and I ran the 5K. Andrew smashed his PR by 2 minutes running 23:25. I finished first in the women with 19:55. I won gift cards to a coffee shop (which I gave to my sister-in-law) and tickets to a New Years Eve party in Orange County (which I gave to my brother, Spencer.) The only prize that I was actually able to use was the pumpkin pie although my mom had so many delicious homemade pies that we didn't get around to eating it until a few days later when we got home!

After we got back to my parent's house Kaitlyn started acting like she wasn't feeling too well. A couple hours later she had a fever and fell asleep. She slept through Thanksgiving dinner which kind of put a damper on the day. It was really quiet and we missed having her at the table with us. My mom is a fabulous cook and Thanksgiving dinner was wonderful. She makes everything from scratch. Even the bread for her stuffing is made from scratch. Cecilia is French-Italian so she got to experience her first American Thanksgiving. She thought the rainbow jello was a little strange but the boys were happy because they got to eat her piece.

My birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year. I told my mom not to make a cake but as soon as I was out the door for the race she made me one. She wasn't going to decorate it but Cecilia insisted on making it look more like a birthday cake. She had never seen food coloring before and started dumping half the bottle in the icing. My mom told her that was "gobs" but she didn't know what that word meant (by the way, her English is very good!) so she just kept dumping it in! It did make for some bright blue icing! Wow, that's a lot of candles! I got them all out except one in the corner!

A trip to California would never be complete without several trips to the beach. It was easy to tell we were visitors from a colder part of the country since our kids were the only ones in swimming suits playing in the water! The water is always cold there and with temperatures a little cooler than normal it was kind of chilly for a swim! The amazing part is that while the adults were cold sitting on the beach the kids didn't even seem to notice how freezing cold the water was. The last day we were there I wouldn't let Kaitlyn wear her swimsuit since she had been sick but the water was still just too tempting for her and when we left she was wet from the knees down! We watched the dolphins, collected seashells and enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the ocean!

Our trip ended up being cut one day short when we had to avoid driving home in a snow storm. I wish we had more time to stay but we loved spending the holiday weekend with my family!